High Fever

Last night, one of our new little girls had a very high fever!  At 6:00 pm it was at 104.1  Yikes!  I have never seen a child with such a high temperature.  She felt burning to the touch.  I knew we had to get her temperature down and racked my brain for ideas.  We bathed her, put a cold washcloth on her belly, put an icepack on her forehead, then on her back and in her armpit.  We gave her acetaminophen every 4 hours.  

Many Haitians use plants to cook soups that have healing properties.  I told Lynoue about her fever and asked if there was a special soup people made in Haiti for fevers.  Haitians know a lot of herbal remedies for ailments.  Lynoue said she knew what to do.  I went to check on Betline and Lynoue came in the room.  She brought her into the bathroom and held Betline in her lap.  She undressed Betline, put a clothes washing tub on the floor between her legs, and used a bar of lye soap to wash Betline’s hair.  She lathered it up, rinsed it out, and repeated this 3 times.  She rubbed the soap on her belly too.  Betline was saying she was scared that she was going to fall down and Lynoue kept reassuring her that she was holding her safely.  After the 3^rd lathering, Lynoue did not rinse out the soap.  She left it in her hair and Betline slept like that through the night.  This morning her fever was at 100.4.  Thank goodness it had gone down some.  Poor little girl.  She’s 3 years old and malnourished. 

I picked up her test results at Mission of Hope to discover she is negative for malaria and typhoid.  These are the most common ailments in Haiti when someone has a fever.  In America, one may just have a fever.  In Haiti, a fever is a sign of something worse.  Maybe her body is fighting an infection?  We will keep researching to try to find out what is causing her high fever.  This afternoon, she broke out in a rash all over her body.  We are pumping fluids and trying to get her fever down.  Please pray for this sweetie.